If you ran a traditional, brick-and-mortar business, would you give your business address to just anyone? With the need to promote brand awareness and drive foot traffic at a physical location, the answer here is likely a resounding “YES.” Letting potential customers know where your business is located and getting them through the door are crucial steps to success.

Conversely, are you willing to give out your home address to just anyone? Given the importance most individuals place on their personal privacy, the answer to this question is probably an emphatic “NO.” When relaxing in the comfort of your own home, being bothered by an unexpected visitor or solicitor is a fairly annoying experience. Failing to properly safeguard your home address could also provide bad actors with the information they need to commission crimes ranging from robbery¹ to identity theft.²

If business owners want the general public to know their business address but individuals desire to keep their home address private, then what about individuals that operate a business out of their home; would they want customers to know their address? For most, especially independent online retailers, the answer here is an unequivocal “NO.”

For most home businesses, internet clicks and views have replaced the need for foot-traffic, so there is no business purpose for making your home address known to the public. Further, and bad actors notwithstanding, a homeowner can simply turn away an uninvited guest or solicitor. However, if a disgruntled customer shows up at your doorstep, simply asking them to leave may not be enough. Anyone who has worked in customer service knows that deescalating an irate customer is no easy feat. Even the possibility of this sort of intrusion undermines the safety and security one should feel, and expect, while in their own home.

Sadly, this is the reality that many individuals who operate a small business out of their home face. While business operations have run parallel with technological development, state laws regulating business have not. When filing an entity formation in most states, you are required to list a “Principal Office” address, which is usually defined as”the address where the principal executive office of the entity is located.”³ While ambiguous, this wording heavily implies that the entity and its decision makers occupy a physical location.

So, if your business operates out of your personal residence, does that make it your “Principal Office” by default? What if you go to an internet cafe or co-working establishment to handle business matters; would that address, which you have no legal claim to, be your “Principal Office”? What if you run your business completely from your smartphone as you travel the country?

Clearly, the definition above leaves a lot to be desired in terms of clarity and modernity. As a general rule, any definition that includes the word(s) you are seeking to define is ineffectual. Further, the definition of “Principal Office” has been in place for the better part of the last century. Not only was it set before the internet caused an exponential rise in home businesses, but also before the internet even existed.

With the statutory definition of “Principal Office” lagging far behind modern business trends, the need to revise it is fairly obvious (and one of the reasons that Addressing What Matters was formed). Unfortunately, changing a definition that is so entrenched is an uphill battle, which is why AWM would like to highlight one state that seems to understand this unnecessary ambiguity.

For years, Wyoming has been establishing itself as a haven for business, going so far as to call itself “The Delaware of the West.”⁴ While Wyoming may not be able to match the sheer number of entities incorporated in Delaware, its business laws are gaining ground as the most favorable in the country and helping to attract an ever increasing number of entities.

At a recent meeting of the Corporations, Elections & Political Subdivisions Standing Committee, Wyoming Secretary of State Business Division Director Colin Crossman stated the following:

“Mr. Chairman…a principal office is where the principal place of business or business is conducted or records are kept. Because of that ambiguity a registered office can be a principal office and in a lot of ways you can see that as being completely reasonable for a lot of businesses that don’t have a principal place of business, for instance a holding company or an entirely online business or a business…of a person who doesn’t have an address. So there’s there’s a lot of flexibility in that and many businesses assign their registered agent as their principal office….”⁵

With Wyoming’s dedication to being on the cutting edge of business trends⁶, such a stance should not come as a surprise. However, pointing out the things government gets right is as important as pointing out its blunders. So thank you, Wyoming, for understanding the need to protect the residential privacy of the home business community.

Technology and modernization show no signs of abating, meaning the ease with which someone can form and operate a business out of their home will only increase. State business laws need to reflect this change. Hopefully, for the sake of our home business owners, the other forty-nine states follow Wyoming’s lead.

1 Four Tactics Burglars Are Using On Social Media To Target TheirVictims, Get Safe Online, https://www.getsafeonline.org/personal/blog-item/four-tactics-burglars-are-using-on-social-media-to-target-their-victims/.

2 Identifying And Protecting Yourself From Identity Theft, USPS.com (Mar. 15, 2023) https://faq.usps.com/s/article/Identity-Theft.

3 See, e.g., Ind. Code § 23-0.5-1.5-29 (2024); Ky. Rev. Stat. § 275.015(23) (2024); Or. Rev. Stat. § 63.001(29) (2023).

4 Lydia Beyoud, Wyoming Wants to be ‘Delaware of the West’ With Business Court, Bloomberg Law (Jan. 9, 2019, 2:30 AM), https://news.bloomberglaw.com/banking-law/wyoming-wants-to-be-delaware-of-the-west-with-business-court.

5 Third-party filers Hearing on 25LSO-0114.05 Before the Comm. on Corporations, Elections & Political Subdivisions, 2024 Leg., XX Sess. (Wy. 2024) (statement of Dir. of Business Services Colin Crossman, Wy. Sec. of St.).

6 Leo Schwartz, Wyoming Wants to Become The Delaware of DAO with New Crypto Law for Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, Fortune (March 8, 2024 at 5:00 AM), https://fortune.com/crypto/2024/03/08/wyoming-dao-a16z-crypto-crypto-blockchain-ooki/.